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To women runners across the globe, this is to let you know that a small group of women in Delhi took a decisive step this morning 🙂

We ran in our sports bras and crop tops, the way millions of you already do, without even thinking about it.

But this is India.

And this is Delhi, a city not known to be women-friendly.

But we did it!

It all started with a phone call from one of the Delhi NCR’s most popular and influential runners – the blogger, yogini and runner Tanya Agarwal.

She was organising a sports bra run along with another runner Nikita Seth. Was I interested?

“Obviously,” was my answer.

And so this overcast, humid Delhi morning a group of us ran together in our sports bras and crop tops, feeling cooler without the extra layer of a sweaty T shirt, feeling great, and having a blast.

When Tanya announced the run, she shared the vision behind it:

“The objective of this Run :Shed your Inhibitions and run!This is not any of those women’s liberation kind of run. It’s a few of us ladies getting together to feel the experience of a different run with like minded company. It’s to shed inhibitions, continue to feel strong about our bodies and believe that once in a while you can do it just the way you’d really like and have wanted. Delhi is hard on us women and we should not do this alone! But together we can!

Hoping to inspire the fence sitters. Hoping to be a drop in the ocean!”

I can’t officially speak for all the other fabulous young women, but I’d say it was TOTAL “mission accomplished”, Tanya and Nikita.

We ran strong, we had fun, we turned a few heads, and we garnered smiles and high fives from most of the runners we met en route.

It was SO encouraging to see the smiles and hear the cheers as runners passed us this morning and – in a moment that I hope someone captured on film – as we crossed a group running towards us, Tanya yelled “Take it off!” and Garima Dhamija did just that! Whipped off her T-shirt, changed directions and joined us.

Total rockstar moment.

Whenever I’ve seen runners overseas, I’ve noticed that so many women run in crop tops.

If you look at photos online of races, marathons, whatever, so many women are running comfortably clad, and no-one seems to bat an eyelid.

So that issue was part of the rationale behind today’s run.

And yes, it felt great to run freer and cooler, and I think we all looked pretty damn fantastic – though I’m obviously biased!

But it wasn’t simply about running in our sports bras.

It was also about shedding inhibitions, about feeling OK about your body. About feeling good in your own skin.

Yet again, I can’t speak for all the young women this morning, but I know that a couple of women felt apprehensive about running in less rather than more.

I certainly did.

I’m very conscious of my age, of the wrinkles, and of the old-lady flab that is gradually accumulating, despite all the running.

I admit to having a bit of a wobble during the week and wondering whether I wasn’t about to make a total and utter fool of myself.

But I wasn’t about to let down the great core team of women and – very importantly – great male supporters, and so off I went.

We rendezvous-ed outside Nehru Park, and had a fun photo shoot

Just look at these young women! Fit & fabulous & looking completely normal in their pared down running gear.

What a gallery of great women 🙂

After yet more photos and initiating an hour-long Facebook live session, off we set, accompanied by a gang of great guys.

These men, all stellar runners and coaches in their own right, supported us fantastically.

I suppose the original idea was that the men would be there in case of any untoward reaction to the sight of women in Delhi in – gasp – sports bras & crop tops.

As it was, nothing happened, though to be fair we were running at dawn, and around a park that is runners central on Sundays, but nothing other than cheers and positivity came our way. Which is SUCH a wonderful reaction.

So the presence of so many of my male running friends just made the whole exercise seem more normal. In the end, we were a group of women running with a group of men. How brilliant.

I enjoyed every single moment of this initiative and was hoping that Nikita & Tanya would agree to another lap of the park. As it is, I’m hoping they already have the next #sheditrun planned!

So.

Did I shed any of my own inhibitions?

Well…I certainly feel very conscious of my wrinkles in one photo that is so hideous (of me 🙁 ) that even in the pursuit of objective blogging, I can’t bear to share it. I look about 700 years old 🙁 🙁

So, no, actually, a total fail in shedding that particular inhibition!

Joking aside, it actually felt weird for a moment, putting my T shirt on for the drive home. It had felt natural to be dressed the way we were.

And taking things forward?

In Delhi, I certainly won’t be running in my sports bra alone.

I might well run in it with another group of women, like today, or with the same kind of fab blokes we ran with today.

And I’m going to work on that flab, which isn’t an inhibition, before you say anything – just need to #shedit!

Today was great fun, but also came with a great purpose behind it.

Honoured to have been part of the inaugural #shedit run & look forward to the next one!

This lovely guest post is by one of my running girlfriends Mousumee Mishra. We ran the “Shed it” Run together a couple of months ago.

Mousumee shares here the story of the first ever Pinkathon run in the eastern state of Odisha, and she tells it with her usual verve and enthusiasm.

I can almost hear her happy laughter 🙂

“Pinkathon Day is celebrated on the 21st of October. It is India’s biggest women’s run founded by Milind Soman and Reema Sanghavi, & was created with the objective of spreading awareness about women’s health related issues like breast cancer. Through the Pinkathon we encourage women to adopt health and fitness in their daily lifestyles by means of running. The Pinkathon, organized by the United Sisters Foundation, is conceived as more than just a running event & the purpose of the run is to use community running as a tool, to empower and enable thousands of women across India to bring positive physical change into their lives.

Our body is perfected over millions of years to perform endurance exercise in fairly warm conditions. Running helps to better your own fitness levels. Training the body to push past the “I need to stop” thought truly helped many runners to build an indomitable level of determination across all spheres in their life. Running brings positive change in my mental and physical state of being. I’d heard about Pinkathon for 4 years and how Milind was able to make a fitness goal for women across states to have healthier women at all households. As I was scrolling through the website of Pinkathon day, I was curious to know who the Ambassador for my hometown, Bhubaneswar was.

There was no name!

The reason why I chose to lead the Pinkathon day in Bhubaneswar is that my roots belong here, with the city. I want to make a difference in my hometown. I want to make running as a lifestyle choice for them, just didn’t have the right platform or partner to demonstrate that.

“Why do you run?” is the question asked by every non-runner.

I don’t have an answer for them. And I have stopped asking myself this question. The night before any run I imagine myself balancing some insane amount of energy and strength on the road in my running gear, and then there is no looking back when the alarm rings.

For any event to be successful , we need like-minded leaders to hold hands and share the load of organizing such event which was first of its kind in the city. Through Milind and his core team of Sharmila and Vaishnavi I got introduced to two of my co-leads, Indira and Biswanath, both runners and who had the same goal in minds. Objective was set, we are going to organize a run for women health awareness. It would be a 5km run, with online registrations of them and a few men volunteers for this event.

But here was the twist, neither Indira nor I was in Bhubaneswar to ensure seamless execution. Through the Pinkathon Whatsapp group, we were guided and given instructions at every step in our journey. Bhubaneswar got a slot a week before the closing date. And boom we had close to 200 registrations. Long story short , we managed the first step.

Biswanath conducted weekly runs for the enthusiastic participants and we encouraged many of them to start practicing. As Team Bhubaneswar started gearing up for the run, so did the monsoons and the Durga puja preparation in the city. Durga puja festival is the time of the year where the whole city is united to celebrate Maa Durga’s nine avatars with pomp and show. Amongst the beautifully lit pandals and street food, the training runs were conducted.

Finally the D day arrived with loads of pre preparation anxiety.

Our volunteers and Ambassadors had reached the venue at 5am. We stuck with our race plan with directional signage made by participant’s children and special kids from Hopes and Smiles. We placed the volunteers with medical kit and kilometre boards and instructed all to follow the same. All the volunteers were trained properly with their respective responsibilities.

We started with few minutes of warm up session and as all started running it was an empowering experience to see that. We saw the light chatty runners, the speedster runners, the mother kid duo run, the ex-veteran athlete runners. Most of them felt really relaxed. We let them do what they are comfortable with and we wanted all to have fun. I saw many women sharing fitness coaching ideas and bonding camaraderie and seeking help to reach each other’s training goals. And for a few, the blissful solitude of running alone and soaking all energy.

One of the great things about running is the freedom to do it wherever and whenever you like.

My parents stood like a strong pillar, not only in supporting but by participating and push and ensuring this event was executed properly. They are always an integral part in my fitness journey to ensure I can juggle it in between home and work and get enough recovery.

For the first time in Bhubaneswar history, 150+ women joined hands together with few generous men to run the PINKATHON DAY.

I could pat myself on the back, after seeing the perfect execution of the plan and the floods of posts in digital and print media about happy runners. Thanking the media who ensured our goal fitness reached each household.

Next year we will make it bigger, and ensure more people are on the street running for fitness.”

Well done, my friend, for being instrumental in launching such a great fitness initiative and I wish you and the great ladies and girls of Odisha good luck for all future events 🙂

My running friend Dilawer Khan, who lives in Jammu, has just become an ultra-runner.

How fantastic is that?

A week after running a super fast half marathon in delhi, Dilawer tackled a 63km run, and has thus moved himself into a new league altogether!

Congrats, my friend, and thanks for sharing your experiences in this vivid telling of your first ultra run.

Dear reader, I give you Dilawer in his own, happy, humorous words:

“It has been on mind right after some time I’d started running and now I’ve accomplished it- to run an ultra (anything beyond 42 Kms).

I started running in the year 2015 and ADHM was my first official race. Since then I’ve run around 15 half marathons, 2 full marathons and few 10k’s. With time I’ve been able to improve my pace and I’m only getting greedier. However at the same time I feel like running longer distances as well.

So basically need to strike a balance between distance and speed.

This Sunday my team, Jammu Runners, planned to run an inter-city ultra run from Jammu to Udhampur(65 Kms approx). I was a bit sceptical about this as I had ran my fastest HM only a week ago (ADHM’18).

Then I decided that I’ll take it as my usual Sunday LSD (long slow distance) run and see how far I could go.

We, the group of 13 runners (everyone with his own set of targets) and 3 crew cars, started at 5 AM and it was perfect weather for running. With the brief flat/downhill start it was mainly a continuous uphill run till around 20 Kms on NH-44. So it was even slower than the LSD pace.

The weather and the scenery around the highway made the ascent easier though the monkeys, our side spectators, did scare me at times. I crossed the highest point till that distance in around 2 and a half hours and it was the first time also that I crossed that toll plaza without paying anything 😀.

I along with my experienced ultra runner friend Gagan started with leading the run, were at the back of the pack now thanks to our generous stoppages and photo shoot sessions.

After the toll plaza we ran through the mountains (thanks to the tunnels). There we came across a man on his cycle rickshaw coming all the way from Jalandhar to pay his obeisance to Vaishno Devi at Katra(power of faith).

Thanks to our support team, we had been having proper supply of nutrition in the form of energy drinks, fruits and biscuits. After running for more than three hours and completing 22 kms we stopped for proper breakfast. After that it was kind of a picnic run, if I can call it so, with more stoppages and photo shoots. Without much fatigue and tiredness touched the mark of 30k, so my next target was full marathon. Some of the runners had already finished their run after achieving their respective targets and the leaders – Rajesh Padha (running 60k on his 60th birthday)and Mukesh(his first full/ultra marathon) had made the u-turn after touching the full marathon mark (they finished after completing 61kms).

As we, Gagan and me, decided against U-turn(to add an inter-city run to our running profiles 😋) bid adieu to our crew captain and had to carry our bags now.

After some more pics and more breaks and I crossed FM in around 5 hours (running time). Then the goal post shifted further to 50k(ultra).

After 10 hours on feet and 7 hours of running time I touched my first ultra run mark. Honestly speaking there was no special feeling of jubilation or sense of achievement, as now I was eyeing to finish it at another town.

Then we had our last break at 55k and set for Udhampur town.

The sun was setting and it was getting colder now.

Legs had started to show the signs fatigue.

After running 62 Kms on the highway we took the left turn towards the town, finally the destination was in front of my eyes and we finished after 63 Kms with more than 12 hours on feet and almost 10 hours of running time.

There I was with the feelings of joy and contentment or maybe no feelings at all. But now when I look back and go through that run again in my head I cannot believe that I have run from Jammu to Udhampur.

Here I have to thank my friends who made it possible (and look easier).

First of all Mr Rajesh Padha for making the plan and leading from the front, Rajeshwar for his unrelenting support on the way, Sandeep Singh for his energy injections (not literally!) and everybody who ran along with me.

Last but not least, Gagan, who actually turned this ultra run into a fun run with continuous sharing of his prior ultra running experience, holding me back whenever the speedster in me tried taking over and everything he did to make it a memorable experience.

This first ultra run of mine exactly did the same to me what most of the long runs do – makes you humble.”

Dilawer, my friend, I am speechless with admiration!

You put lazy ol’ runners like me to shame 😛

Fantabulous achievement & I am super proud of you.

#keeprunning #keepinspiring & the next time we meet in Delhi, you can buy me a coffee with the money you saved from the toll plaza!

For those of you who were not out running early this morning in Delhi, let me say, quite simply, that it was brutally humid. Hot and very, very humid.

For those of you who were running this morning, you don’t need me to remind you of the cruel weather. So let me just say “well done” for being out there, training 🙂

We were a large contingent from our ASICS Running Club to meet up before 6am in a Delhi sports ground, to drill and train and run.

Today we did an unstructured fartlek workout.

We’ve done many fartlek workouts over the 18 months we’ve trained together, and I’ve written about them, too. Here’s the link to the most recent fartlek session I wrote about, dating from mid-May.

Today, though, was different in that Coach didn’t tell us in advance that we would do x fast reps and y slow reps.

Instead, we were to start running and then go by his whistle.

So we all set off running fast and waited for his whistle, and then ran slowly until the next whistle, and so on and so forth.

Coach blew his whistle in what appeared to be a random pattern, but I’m sure it wasn’t. Sometimes the long-short rhythm would be regular, sometimes there would be a long fast section followed by a too short slow section 😛 and he varied the rhythm non-stop for 5 km.

Yes, it was exhausting.

But it was challenging and fun and though I felt a bit nauseous about half way through, I didn’t stop, and staggered on to the end. Coach stood there, throwing out his pithy one liners to encourage us. At one point, when Coach was blowing his whistle quickly between the fast and slow sections (meaning they were each of a shorter duration), as I tottered past, he muttered something about how I could perhaps make an effort in the fast drills, since they were getting shorter.

Although I managed a fast pace at the outset, obviously I got slower as the 5.3km went on, but was pretty darn pleased that I finished it, with no goofing off.

I was wiped out, I have to say, and things were not helped by a fearsomely difficult yoga workout led by one of our tribe, Ajay Jaisinghania.

I’m stiff and un-supple at the best of times, but Ajay’s routine this morning actually had me teetering on the edge of tears.

Truly.

To be the only one unable to bend and twist, and the realisation that I’m probably too old ever to be able to work towards such suppleness was a sobering thought.

From the “high” of doing a good fartlek, I was almost in tears.

Stupid, but there you go.

Team photo, though probably more than half of the group had left, since it’s a working day.

Once home, I did a little online research about the benefits of unstructured fartlek & I’m sharing here a very useful article from the always excellent Runners World website, which has some interesting insights into the kind of unstructured fartlek we did this morning:

“…workout uses deception as a way of tapping into your hidden reserves. You may think you’re cooked when you finish a hard workout, but scientists have repeatedly shown that people can actually maintain a similar pace for another few reps after completing a prescribed workout. And the benefits can be substantial. In one study, cyclists who were fooled into riding farther than expected were subsequently able to race 13 percent faster when they knew the correct distance…”

“Deception as a way of tapping into your hidden reserves“.

Now how interesting is that as a concept? Certainly worked for me this morning.

And this next sentence could almost have been tailor made for a slow runner like yours truly:

“Don’t get hung up on pace—the goal is to push when you thought you couldn’t anymore.”

Somehow, something worked, because despite feeling super tired, after our ASICS session, I then went for a v-e-r-y slow 6km run with my running partner Ripu Daman.

I was quite convinced after the fartlek workout that I’d have absolutely no energy left, but those hidden reserves mentioned above actually came into play.

We went to check on the tree-cutting, by the way, and found no evidence of further tree cutting in Netaji Nagar,scene of our protests.

5 weeks ago, I posted my first review of the ASICS DynaFlyte 3, and since we have now completed another 100km together, I thought a quick follow-up review might be in order.

As I stated in my first review, I am a recently appointed ASICS Running Influencer in India, where I live, but the company has put me under no obligation whatsoever to write reviews, favourable or otherwise.

Not once has anyone suggested I should even review their products.
Right, it’s now been 2 months & 215km that we’ve been together, and so how are we doing, my lovely turquoise shoes & I?

We are doing just fine and dandy, and I am every bit as impressed by these beauties as when I took them for their first run, exactly 2 months ago today 🙂 (So happy 2 months to us!).

The DynaFlyte 3 continues to impress me with its lightness.

You lace them up and then can almost forget about them, since they are so light and un-clunky.

In the last 100km we’ve run together, there has been some road work on Delhi’s hard, unforgiving roads, but mainly on paths and trails in my local park.

Like so:

My shoes have got dusty and muddy, and been washed a couple of times – they come up looking as good as new!

No chafing, no noticeable wear & tear.

No feeling that the wonderful cushioned soles are wearing down.

All round, I’m still delighted with them.

Since they are so sleek-looking (plus I LOVE the colour) I’ve worn them out and about a few times for non-running events.

My running friend Rohit Manaktala has a lovely story from his 15k run in the Lodhi Gardens this morning.

Let him tell you this sweet story in his own words:

“As I finished my cool down walk after a nice 15k interval run at Lodhi today, I saw a car drive up with a beagle which looked exactly like Pixie, my neighbour’s dog, except he was not a she!

I came to know from the lady, a resident of our colony, that the dog was found loitering outside her gate and she thought it was Pixie, and so brought him here only to discover the vital difference!

We had seen a beagle being taken for walks to Lodhi, so surmised he was probably from the adjacent colony. A couple of boys were sent to ask around and spread the word, and we also flashed the news on our colony’s Whatsapp group. Whilst waiting, we kept Casper (discovered his name later) busy by playing with/petting him, and also introduced him to Pixie who, after some initial alarmed barking, started sniffing each other and became quite friendly.

The owner meanwhile had hard about the boys enquiring and came looking for Casper on a scooty. She recognised his bark and zeroed in to where we had tied casper and given him water and biscuits while waiting.”

Awww.

A happy ending and, maybe, just maybe, a budding romance between Pixie and Casper 🙂

How I love these 2, Kathakoli Dasgupta, the gal who got me running 5 years ago, and her met-in-India hubby Dave Hogg.

They both ran a race yesterday and they both share their stories here.

(Pause for everyone to say “Awww…” 🙂 )

I didn’t even have to badger them to write, bless ’em.

By the way, you need to know that Dave was injured recently, by the way.

So, Katha first:

“There are some races that you just do, some you are proud of and some that make you happy. Today’s Great South Run was the happiest I have felt during a race.

The weather was gorgeous, the energy infectious, the music uplifting, the cheer from the crowds super encouraging. I did high-fives with every kid I could reach and was beaming throughout the 10 miles.

What makes this race even more memorable is that Portsmouth’s historic sea front has a special significance for Dave’s family; plus Dave’s achieved another milestone in the road to recovery—he is running again, having started to jog a few days back, and finished the race in 1:20:53! I wasn’t far behind and am pretty chuffed with my 1:29:32. #HappyRunner “

Now over to Dave:

“So I wrote last week about new found enjoyment from walking whilst I couldn’t run after an accident. Since then I’ve taken steps back to running, first a short jog, then a longer one, then further again. It felt really weird as I’ve never had such a long time not running (albeit 6 weeks) since I started running 19 years ago: my muscles just weren’t used to it and had lost their running edge. But given we drove six hours to run the Great South Run—or at least for my wife Katha to—and the weather was unseasonably fantastic, I couldn’t but reverse my decision not to run. It wasn’t easy, but I gritted my teeth and got round the course in a not unreasonable time. And the best thing was that, with no pressure to race or get a PB, I again got to enjoy the coastal scenery en route.”

Dave, as a fellow Brit, I applaud your totally British understatement – “not unreasonable time”. Arre, baba, you’re running after being knocked off your bike, and you do 10 miles in 1:20. Amazing stuff.

India is going through its own #MeToo movement, with the naming and (theoretical) shaming of Bollywood personalities and politicians. I use the word “theoretical” advisedly, since in the case of a journalist-turned-politician M.J.Akbar, he is brazening it out, and our government remains steadfastly silent about the fact that their junior minister for External Affairs stands accused of sexual harassment.

Speaks volumes about the way India regards its women.

All of this is by way of introduction to the following story shared by my running friend, Shalini Verma.

For readers not familiar with the places Shalini mentions in her account, all you need to know is that this took place in Gurgaon, a bold, brash, brand new satellite town next to Delhi, where many of the biggest companies have their HQs and where there are glitzy towers blocks and malls galore and…read on, and you’ll see what else there is.

The other thing you might need to know is that ADHM refers to the big half marathon taking place in Delhi this Sunday.

And now, over to Shalini:

“As part of #ADHM training, my friend & I were doing a 3 hour run today. We started at 5am from Galleria and went till Mega Mall near Bristol Hotel.

When we were crossing the metro station, a white scooty crossed us from the wrong side and the driver touched my friend’s butt…and drove away.

We both were shocked and for few second did not know how to react. Then we saw him crossing us from the service lane side.

We both decided to follow him. So we started running towards Mega Mall. After a few minutes we were not able to see his scooty. We thought he must have gone, so we turned and started running again.
But no…… he came back again and stopped at the Galleria turn…. after a few seconds, he took a right turn towards Galleria.

We both decided to catch hold of him, thinking that there are cops near Galleria market, so we might be able take their help.

But within a second he again turned back and started coming towards us …… by then we knew what we are going to do….. I was ready with my water bottle and she was ready with hers.

When he was about to cross us, we both ran towards him. He was not ready for this attack…. my friend pushed him towards the road dividers ….and he lost his balance. That’s when we caught hold of him and started slapping him left … right … centre.

I used my water bottle to hit hard on his face and head. Since he was on a scooty he managed to escape …
But we both felt nice….and then we went on and completed our run.”

Firstly, ewww that yet another woman was groped by some low life man.

Been there, sad to say, on several occasions.

Secondly – WELL DONE, ladies, for fighting back. Great reaction and brave of you to tackle him.

In my experience of being groped when I’ve been out running, no one, repeat no one, comes to your aid, not even the cops.

So you 2 handled this as well as you could.

So bad that this stuff happens. But then look at what is NOT happening with the #MeToo movement…

This time next week, fingers crossed, I should be safely tucked up in bed, race gear all laid out, ready for a super early start.

Next Sunday’s Airtel Delhi Half Marathon starts at 5 o’clock in the morning, which will mean reporting at 4.15 latest, which will mean leaving the house at 3.45, which will mean getting up at…

Pause while I hyperventilate.

I had this exact same conversation this morning with Vaibhav, one of my ASICS Running Club mates, and I think we ended up deciding we’d have to be in bed by 6pm 😛

Jeez Louise!

This fretting about the time I’ll have to get up pre-race, is all part and parcel of the countdown to an event, and in the 5 years since I entered this exciting world of running, I’ve learned that nerves are all part of the process.

So better to get them over and done with in advance.

Further proof, if it were required, that I’m in race countdown mode is that I tinkered with my playlist today. Added a couple, moved a few around. That kind of stuff.

And thus it will go on all week, as race day gets closer.

In our running club meet this morning, we did just one fast hill work out: 20 x at a fast pace, about 80% of our normal fast pace, according to Coach. Between you and me, I was crushed when I was giving it my all (or so I thought) and was told by Coach to speed it up…ah well 😛

But it felt good to pit myself against a stronger runner like Saurabh, and sort of keep up with him (below):

But other than this short and fast drill, we mostly worked on strength and stretching, and we did some different strength exercises, which were fun and challenging at the same time. The idea is to taper, gradually, before race day.

The weather is beyond perfect in Delhi at the moment – borderline chilly at 5.50 when we started – and it feels invigorating, after the muggy summer humidity.

One of our members, Sushil Hooda, made a lovely video of this morning, which sums up our training, with a week to go before race day. It also gives you an idea of the fabulous light, early in the morning.